Water Secluded City, Southern Boundary

After ten days of muddy, walking corpse-like trekking, Seven Nights came to a mountain village called "Longyang" on the southern border of the Water Shadow City.

Ten days ago, because of the backlash of the Black Demon Flame, his spirit fell into a coma, his memory was disordered, and his headache was like a split, as if the whole world was gray.

Entering the mouth of the valley, Qiye saw several thick black smoke rising from the depths of the mountain col, so thick and dark smoke filled the air, which made people feel ominous.

Due to the dense woods on the hillside, and the fact that it was nearly nightfall, Qiye was not sure what the black smoke was burning from, but it was certainly not the evening cooking smoke of the farmhouse. Something must have happened where the black smoke rises.

Thinking that his physical strength is weak now, his spiritual power is exhausted, and his state is very bad, if he encounters any horse thieves or the like in front of him, I am afraid that he will not be able to deal with it.

Nanaya frowned, and looked around carefully, the winding mountain road continued to stretch deep into the ravine, and there was no other mountain road to walk around except this path.

"It seems that there is only one way to go......" After checking to no avail, Qiye sighed helplessly. I had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue along the path, carefully moving deeper into the ravine.

After ten days of eating and sleeping in the open, he was already disgraced and embarrassed at this moment. The original clean and simple cloth clothes have become tattered, dirty and muddy, coupled with an unkempt face, Qiye looks like a little beggar on the street at this moment.

After turning one ravine after another, and turning the corner of the woods, Qiye saw many low, low, and uneven wooden signs erected on the open slopes on both sides. Behind each wooden plaque, a narrow mound bag was raised.

If you look closely, each wooden sign inserted in front of the grave has a few crooked black letters written on it. Such as Miao Si, Weishan, Mancang....... , the name of these peasant croppers.

Seeing so many densely packed and upright wooden signs, Nanaya's heart was suddenly shocked: what happened in this ravine, why did so many people die?......

One unanswerable question after another lingered in his mind, adding to the already ominous atmosphere. It's not that I haven't seen life and death, but when I see so many wooden signs dangling in front of me, it seems like a fresh life disappearing from front of my eyes, and my heart is extremely heavy and sad and desolate.

Just as Qiye wanted to speed up his pace and leave this oppressive slope, he inadvertently glanced at the hillside, and a small figure with a curved back was faintly standing on the slope, facing a wooden sign.

"Hey, there seems to be someone on the hillside. Qiye sighed softly, suddenly slowed down, and after observing for a while, he found that the figure had been standing there still.

"Why don't you go over and have a look?" he hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind, and then walked cautiously towards the slope where the figure stood.

When he climbed up the hill and was about to get closer, Qiye saw that the short figure that had been standing still was a thin and slender old woman.

The old woman was wrapped in a black dress full of tattered patches, her swarthy and earthy face had been reclaimed by the years, and her hands covered with calluses and mud stood motionless on a dead wooden cane in front of her, towards the two wooden signs. It seemed to be mourning, but when Qiye approached, he found the old woman asleep.....

Whew, pout, pout, faint and uneven snoring came from the old woman's nose.....

"Grandma, wake up... Grandma, wake up..."Qiye stepped forward, gently put his hand on the old woman's back, and called sideways beside her. After a long time, the old woman seemed to lift her heavy, sunken eyelids slightly, and struggled to open her cloudy eyes.

"Hello, Grandma!" saw the old woman wake up, Qiye smiled and greeted.

"Are you ?...." the old woman asked in a hoarse voice as she looked at the boy who had suddenly appeared in front of her, waking up her dull eyes.

"Hello, Grandma. I'm a passer-by and would like to ask you something, is that okay?" Nanaya said politely.

"What are you talking about?" young man, the old woman has some ears behind her ears and can't hear clearly...... old woman waved her hand, tilting her ears slightly, and her hoarse voice raised its decibels.

"I said, I'd like to ask you something, can I?" said Qiye, who was a little closer to the old woman's ear, and raised his voice appropriately.

"Ahem...... The old woman didn't know much—" The old woman coughed and wheezed for a while, and then hammered her old bones.

"I want to ask, what is going on in this village, why are there so many graves here?" Seeing that the old woman was struggling to speak, Qiye sensibly stepped forward to soothe the old woman's back, and then asked slowly while comforting.

"Ahem...... These graves are all villages... Young men who are arrested to serve as soldiers, as long as they are caught... Few of them came back alive...... Ahem......" The old woman said a little breathlessly, pausing several times in a row, looking very struggling.

Seeing this, Qiye hurriedly took out the water bag on his waist, slowly fed the old woman a few mouthfuls of water, and then helped her sit down on the bluestone next to her to rest.

"Which of your relatives is buried here? After sitting down, Nanaya noticed that the old woman was intently stroking a wooden sign next to her, on which the word 'Otani' was engraved.

"This is my son, and the one next to me is my old man......" The old woman trembled and pointed to the wooden sign next to it that read the word 'Iron Pillar'.

"Who took them there?" Qiye also sat next to the old woman, looked up at the wooden sign she was pointing to, and couldn't help but shudder in his heart: this old woman was a lonely old man.

"Lord of the Castle ......"

After hearing the old woman's answer, Qiye suddenly thought of the time when Shui Lianggong, the city lord of Shuiyoucheng City, together with Han Qi, led 200,000 soldiers and horses to the Far East Domain to find a thousand-year treasure, and the people who could come back from the Far East Domain that time could be said to be one in ten, and many young soldiers were buried in the frozen and snowy land.

Thinking of this, Qiye felt a sadness in his heart. There is more resentment against these people in power. It's just for his own selfish desires that he wantonly captures soldiers and uses them as cannon fodder. Such things that hurt nature and reason and are intolerable are the source of these countless tragedies. Those who disregard the rights of human life in such a way really deserve to be killed!

"Ahem, ahem...... Ahem...... "Just as Qiye was full of resentment and there was an uncontrollable killing intent in his eyes, the old woman interrupted his killing intent with a violent cough.

"That's... Grandma, where is your home, I'll send you home, it's getting late. Qiye retracted his cold eyes, put aside the hatred that had burned just now, and slowly helped the old woman up.

"It's not far ahead, it's hard work, young man...... Ahem...... "The old woman got up slowly, pointing behind the ravine.

"Is there anyone else in your family?" asked Nanaya, seemingly casually.

"His grandfather died early, and my wife and son are the only ones...", the old woman said truthfully.

Sure enough, it was as expected. Seven nights silently supported the old woman, and stopped down the hillside one by one, and came to a dilapidated mountain village in the ravine.

At this time, the night has come to an end, and looking at the hundreds of stone and wooden houses in the distance, only a few houses are illuminated by sporadic firelight, and the rest are in a quiet darkness.

After entering the village, many farmhouses were empty, with low stone-walled courtyards, broken doors, scattered farm tools, and barren grass. Seven nights of careful inspection one by one, all the unoccupied houses were basically the same: scattered, desolate, dilapidated.

"It seems that these households have been abandoned for a long time......," Nanaya muttered to himself.

"Hmm...... Over the years, many of the men in the village have been taken away, the women have fled with their children, and now we are the ones who are dying. Ahem......" the old woman said as she coughed, her tone sullen.

After hearing this, Nanaya continued to support the old woman in silence and walked towards the depths of the village.

After a while, the old woman stopped in front of a low, dilapidated stone house. Seven nights looked at it, and the two wooden doors of the stone house were creaking and shaking in the mountain wind, as if they were about to collapse at any time. A papier-mâché mesh window is full of holes and the sound of paper blown by the wind, and it has long been unable to shelter from the wind and rain. The courtyard was full of weeds, and there were a few rusty farm tools upside down at the door, which looked like they had been useless for a long time.

"Let's go in......" The old woman led Qiye into the house and lit the oil lamp on the wooden table, which was about to burn out. Then from the pitch-black earthen stove, he laboriously took out two sweet potatoes wrapped in thick wood ash.

"You haven't eaten yet, young man, take it and eat it......" The old woman handed it to Nanaya without saying a word.

"No, no, no...... Grandma, I'm not hungry, let's eat. Qiye hurriedly excused himself, and after seeing the old woman's home so desolate, the heavy sweet potatoes in his hands made it difficult for him to swallow.

"Ahem...... Eat, young man, there's still in the earthen stove. There's nothing at home, so I'll wronged you tonight, and I'll be on this grain grass for one night......" The old woman stuffed two sweet potatoes into Qiye's arms again, and then arranged accommodation.

"It's okay, it's good. I'm used to sleeping on straw mats, and I'm not aggrieved at all. Grandma, if you are not well, rest early......" Seeing that the old woman was so resolute, it was not good to excuse herself for seven nights. He first put two pieces of sweet potatoes on the table and helped the old woman into the inner room to rest.

After coming out, looking at the two sweet potatoes on the table, Qiye felt speechless in his heart. Blowing out the candle and lying on the straw mat, a familiar feeling suddenly came to my heart:

I think of the dark days in the slave mine camp, when I slept on a damp and moldy straw mat every day, and endured cold wind and mosquito bites every night, and I couldn't sleep at night. Thinking of those unforgettable years, Qiye couldn't help but sigh: Now there is this thick dry grain grass and a solid quilt, which is very good...

After closing her eyes and recuperating for a while, after the old woman fell asleep peacefully, Qiye got up softly, took out a few spirit stones from the spirit ring and put them in front of him, and began to meditate and absorb.

In the past ten days, he traveled during the day and hid in the cave at night to absorb the spirit stones. If you want to quickly recover your strength, in such a troubled world, if you don't have the strength to guarantee it, your own safety is worrying. Now, the spirit world has long been unfrozen, and although the spirit is still in a coma, it can at least urge the chaotic wheel to absorb the aura.

In this way, Qiye began to diligently absorb the spiritual energy of the spirit stone. After one night, he had already absorbed more than a hundred lower-grade spirit stones, which was already quite a terrifying amount for a 'battle-level early stage one-heavy' spiritual cultivator.

Ordinary 'Battle-level Early Stage One' Spiritual Cultivation, even if you go all out to absorb it, it is the limit to absorb up to ten lower-grade spirit stones in one night. And after absorbing more than 1,000 lower-grade spirit stones for more than ten days in seven nights, more than 100 spirit stars in the spirit realm were re-lit, thinking of the number of 30,000 spirit stars, when will they all be lit up!

......

"Alas......" sighed weakly, and Qiye retracted and got up. There are no days and nights in cultivation, and before you know it, a night has passed. Although there is no sleep at night, there is nothing more refreshing for spiritual practitioners than cultivation.

I feel empowered and in much better shape than I was yesterday. was about to stretch his muscles, when suddenly, Qiye's eyes were cold and his expression was stagnant. Slowly turning his head sideways, he looked into the inner room with sad eyes.

Just now, he tried to disperse his divine sense, and his sense, which had recovered one-twelfth of his sense, had only just spread two meters, and he sensed that the old woman in the inner room had lost a little vitality.

"Grandma......" Qiye couldn't help muttering, and hurriedly entered the house to check. The old woman, with a calm face, lay down and slept there, and went away quietly and silently...

Looking at the two sweet potatoes wrapped in thick wood ash on the table, Qiye suddenly went to check the stove, and there was nothing but wood ash...

Thinking that the old woman gave him the last ration last night, in the darkness, he actually believed it, thinking that Grandma still had his own, but he didn't expect Grandma to give it to him. Thinking of this, Qiye's heart was unrelentably sour, violently stirring his internal organs, and his eyes unconsciously rolled with tears.

It took a long time to bury the old woman's body next to the grave of her son and wife: an empty wooden sign was inserted in front of a low earthen bag.

"Grandma, rest in peace. Before I could tell you yesterday, my name is Seven Nights. I'm sorry I don't know what your name is, but I'm sorry I couldn't write you a wooden sign. ”

"Ah Qi is leaving, and he is going to a distant place to learn skills. I don't know if I will have a chance to come to see you in the future, thank you for taking me in last night, thank you for the sweet potatoes, you gave me the last rations, so that Ah Qi really, really didn't know what to say..... Really, thank you!" Nanaya knelt on his knees and choked up speechlessly in the depths of his love.

After a solemn bow, after the worship is completed. Qiye tearfully put two pieces of sweet potatoes carefully into his arms, and left with a gloomy and sad expression...